International Companies Head to Concord, Calif., to Test Autonomous Vehicles

The latest addition to the list is China's Baidu, an Internet search company.

by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
/
August 4, 2017

(TNS) -- Chinese Internet search giant Baidu has joined the list of companies testing self-driving cars at GoMentum Station, a former military facility in Concord.

Contra Costa County officials announced this week that Baidu will test its autonomous vehicles at the site, a former naval weapons depot — off-limits to the public — whose 20 miles of road can be used to simulate both rural highways and a city grid. Honda, self-driving truck company Otto and autonomous shuttle-bus developer EasyMile have used GoMentum for tests.

“Its ability to offer mixed road conditions and various scenarios in a secure environment will provide our Apollo open autonomous driving platform with valuable data to further advance its technologies,” said Jingao Wang, senior director of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group, in a press release.